Chapter 88: Qin Miao

The bell rang, and finally they began collecting the papers.

Zhao Wanli looked at his densely answered paper, feeling fairly satisfied, and the confidence in his heart returned.

But… when he saw the test paper on the empty seat ahead, curiosity rose again—how much had Qin Miao managed to answer in just ten-odd minutes?

In such a short time, he surely hadn't finished!

The papers had been collected and placed on the lecturer's desk; since the next class was still calculus, the teacher didn't leave but waited on the podium for the next lesson, so he simply started grading the papers during this free time.

He rifled through the stack, pulled out one paper and set it aside, then put the stack down and began grading from the topmost sheet.

Wait, what's going on?

Zhao Wanli walked over, looked at the selected paper—neat and tidy, with the name field filled in as "Qin Miao".

Qin Miao's paper……

The teacher, facing Qin Miao's paper, went on to grade another……

"Teacher, Qin Miao's paper……"

"Well, his paper is the model answer; just grade according to his."

"What?" Zhao Wanli widened his eyes.

Qin Miao finished in ten-odd minutes, got everything right, and it's the model answer?

How could that be!

Seeing Zhao Wanli's unwilling expression, the teacher smiled, pulled out Zhao Wanli's paper from the stack, and said, "Since you're here, I'll give you a personal re‑grade."

Swish, swish, swish—three red check‑marks in a row, then on the fourth question the two answers differed.

It wasn't a particularly hard problem: the limit as X approaches positive infinity of (e^X) divided by ((1 + 1/X)^X).

Zhao Wanli worked it out smoothly; the denominator simplified to e, matching the numerator, giving a result of 1, whereas Qin Miao got e^(1/X) and even wrote out a long string of steps!

Zhao Wanli carefully examined Qin Miao's paper; the derivation seemed correct step by step, yet why did it yield a different result from his own?

"Teacher, I don't understand."

"In class we said that the variable X's tendency must be simultaneous; you have to calculate numerator and denominator at the same time—doing them separately violates that principle……

Zhao Wanli couldn't help smacking his forehead, wondering why he hadn't thought of that……

The whole paper was correct except for that one question, so his score became ninety!

"Teacher, could you… also grade Chu Miaomiao's paper? I'd like to know her score."

The teacher glanced at him: "Sure."

Swish, swish, swish! Big red check‑marks went from the first question all the way to the last.

A perfect score!

Qin Miao got a hundred—no surprise, since he's a freak; nobody else can compare. Chu Miaomiao, despite missing a chunk of class, also scored a hundred?

Zhao Wanli wanted to ask if Chu Miaomiao had copied, given that after Qin Miao left his paper lay on the desk, they shared a table, and she only needed to lift her head……

But he didn't dare say it.

Seeming to know what he was thinking, the teacher said, "Chu Miaomiao and Qin Miao both got a hundred, but many of their solution steps differ—look at this problem……"

"No need to look, teacher—with you proctoring, how could anyone in our class cheat?"

Zhao Wanli bolted out as if fleeing.

Meanwhile, Chu Miaomiao had already opened her textbook, ready to continue the lesson.

As for what Qin Miao was off doing…… he was busy; I couldn't become his burden, I had to seize the time to study, so that one day I could reach his level and help him.

Elsewhere.

Qin Miao was pulled by Zhou Ding onto the school's 212 bus, his mind still foggy: "Professor Zhou, what are we going to do?"

"Let's check out our school‑run factory!" Zhou Ding chuckled: "Next we'll build a truck cannon and modify the Red Flag‑2; the Ha Gong Da campus can't accommodate it, so higher authorities specially coordinated a factory for us to use as our school‑run factory."

If we had to allocate land, construct a factory, and hire workers, it would take a long time; but allocating an existing factory is much easier!

"Such a big matter as the school‑run factory—shouldn't the school leadership handle it personally?"

"The school leaders are in a meeting coordinating this; they called back and told us to go inspect first—if it's suitable, the school will take it; if not…… our Ha Gong Da won't pick up junk!"

Ah, that's how it is!

"What factory did they coordinate for us?"

"The Red Flag Boiler Factory."

"A boiler factory!" Qin Miao felt a bit disappointed—making boilers versus building truck cannons and modifying missiles is a huge difference!

"In Ha Cheng, boiler factories are the most common." On the bus, Zhou Ding began to explain.

The manufacture of industrial boilers in Ha Cheng has a long history; even before liberation, factories like Juxingcheng, Fuju xing, and Hengbin were producing small boilers. In the 1950s collective economy began, so Ha Cheng First Boiler Factory and Ha Cheng Second Boiler Factory were set up, after which a series of boiler factories were built.

Factories such as Xinshuoguang Boiler Factory, Songhua Jiang Boiler Factory, etc. —these collectively owned small boiler plants—had weak technology, shabby workshops, and produced only outdated hand‑fired boilers.

In the 1970s another batch of boiler factories was newly built or renovated, including the Red Flag Boiler Factory, the Long March Boiler Factory, the Cast Iron Boiler Factory, and so on.

According to this, the Red Flag Boiler Factory should be relatively new, and it's only about ten kilometers from Ha Gong Da, so the school leadership chose it for that reason.

Now we need to conduct an on‑site inspection.

Suddenly the vehicle jolted twice; the engine seemed to gasp, coughed a few times, and stalled.

The driver jumped out, opened the engine cover, and crawled inside.

"What's wrong, Xiao Wang?"

"A cylinder's missing; I need to find the cause. The spark plugs were replaced last month, so it shouldn't be……

Gazing at a distant smokestack, Zhou Ding said, "It's not far—you stay here to fix the car, Qin Miao; let's go over there!"

Qin Miao strode forward with his two legs, following Zhou Ding into the howling north wind, feeling resigned: "Why drag me to look at a factory? Couldn't I just take the exam at school? I still want to feel the thrill of testing!"

Finally the factory's rear gate appeared; Qin Miao felt his legs about to give out, so he plopped down on a roadside stone.

It wasn't that he lacked stamina—it was that the clothing of this era was just too thick!

"Teacher Zhou, take a break!"

The two sat down, looking toward the factory's back gate, then… they saw a shifty‑eyed person peek out his head, look left and right, then… push out a 28‑inch bicycle, with several woven bags tied to the rear rack, the contents likely heavy, making the bike hard to push, and it even clattered.